Fans to be able to buy Ticket from 'satellite carrier'
Posted by PAUL VIGNA, Of The Patriot-News March 24, 2009 18:24PM
Categories: Football - NFL
One other item with a lot of local interest that came out of Tuesday's NFL meetings was that
DirecTV has renewed its deal to serve as the NFL's exclusive satellite carrier through 2014. A broadband version of the package will be available by 2012 (NFL), according to excerpts that were picked up in Tuesday's Sports Business Daily.

In New York, Richard Sandomir of the Times reported the deal is worth $1 billion a year, up from the $700 million it currently pays annually, and will allow fans living in areas without access to DirecTV the ability to buy Sunday Ticket on Broadband "directly from the satellite carrier."

NFL Exec VP/Media Steve Bornstein said: "The intent is to serve the underserved. People who can't get it, for whatever reason, will be able to get it."

Sandomir wrote that Sunday Ticket's Red Zone Channel also will be "made available, for a fee, again no later than 2012, to Dish; telephone companies like Verizon and AT&T; wireless; and Internet providers." Bornstein: "This is a great opportunity for Big Cable to sit down and talk about a better relationship with the NFL."

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News wrote that the deal "opens the door to a wider reach for the out-of-home package." NFL VP/Communications Brian McCarthy said that Sunday Ticket "would function as an ad hoc channel on Sundays," and noted that league officials "would soon reach out to distributors about the red zone channel."

McCarthy also said that the availability of the service "would not be tied to distribution of NFL Network." Reynolds noted the NFL and DirecTV also "extended their carriage agreement for NFL Network, which will continue to be offered on DirecTV's Choice package."